Austin Hemphill

I had this happen to me about 8 years ago or so in a g22. It looked like the breech face, for the lack of a better term, tore out of the slide. It started at the top of the breech face and continued until a little disc of the breech face popped out. I was shocked to say the least but at the time there were a couple of other cases mentioned on the net at a number of different sites. Glock did replace the slide FOC and did mention after I pushed a bit that this kind of thing happens from time to time but did not elaborate.

In my 4 port hybrid 8.5 behind a zero 125 got me around 170 pf. Shot ok, but a bit inconsistant velocity wise. The powder is very dense and the charge weights are pretty consistant.

Buddy, I think about 5.2-5.4 worked for me with the 180gr. Masterblasters. 5.7 worked for the 180 Zero JHP both at about 1.170 with a WSR primer.

The only thing I had to adjust on my holster was to make sure the gun did not rotate around the ball bearing when locked. The same adjustments worked for both my open and limited guns and I think I ended up in a similar setting to yours. Just make sure that the gun is solidly locked in and you should be fine.

He has had some serious health issues of late that have prevented him doing much of this kind of work.

I second Front Man's recommendation about Powder Valley, they were the ones that always seemed to have it when others did not. But buy all you can because this seems to be the first powder to sell out and the last to restock at all of the dealers I have looked at. I love it in my gun, but had to go to 3n37 because I could not afford to buy enough at one time to keep me shooting through the dry spells. It is the only problem I ever had with this powder.

Rich, I sent an e-mail to Don last week and got a reply in 2 days. He seems to be ok from what I can tell. He built my open gun which I am sending in for a tuneup before I bring it down here. When he was building it he was hard to get a hold of but usually replied to my e-mails within a week or two. He did have a spam filter that seemed to stop e-mails from one of my accounts, but my work e-mails have always gotten through. Maybe something similar is happening here?

Just to add my 2 cents, if you like n340 try IMR SR-7625. I use 5.0 with a 124/125 for a minor 9x19 load. It burns relatively cleanly and is very consistent over the chrony. This is with WSR primers at about 1.140". In my experience this powder needs a little compression which I get with most bullets I have tried. It also worked well for my 38sc open loads, but gave me some annoying pressure issues when the temp climbed above 100F. I have found that VV powders are nothing if not consistent. If you are willing to tolerate a little filth, there the Accurate Arms powders are great in my experience. I really liked AA#2 in 40, and AA#7 is great in open if you can take the black sand residue. Personally, I really like 3n37 but it leaves a little unburned granules and burns a little hot, but I love the fact that it performs the same for me regardless of temperature and lot.

I have a bit of a problem. Recently I noticed that my open gun would not hold zero, and I though I had found and fixed the problem by tightening the one loose screw I found on the mount. However, I noticed yesterday that the head of another screw had broken off, with the shank flush with the frame on both sides. The mound I have been using is a CPMI for aimpoint, with three 6-40 x 1/4" screws in the C-more pattern. The other two screws came out easily, and it appears that the locktite had given way. My question is how do I remove the small shank remaining in the frame with out damaging the thin dustcover or hole? I have been thinking about putting a small drill bit in the dremel and trying to spin it out like I did with a 1911 gripscrew that broke in the bushing. In that case it spun right out without any problems. Is this reasonable, or should I just send it to a pro? Thanks, Austin

Thanks Harmon, I think I'll give them a try then.

Harmon, How are those precision deltas working out in your hybrid? I tried another brand, and got some metal spitting out of the ports. I have heard that the exposed base could expand and catch a port causing this. Any thing like this showing up? Thanks, Austin

7.6 gr IMR 7625, 125 gr. Zero 0.355 JHP, Armscor 38S rimless brass, WSR primer, 1.245" OAL. This is through a 5" 4 port hybrid with a 4 chamber comp 4 up, 2 side ports. So far, this load has beat all challengers I have tried in my gun. Is pretty soft, not all that flat, but tracks straight up and down, and I can buy powder just about everywhere. The biggest disadvantage I can see with it is that it flattens primers a bit, but what doesn't? It shoots pretty accurately too, all A's on turtle targets at 50 yds consistantly. It has little if any flash, and very little concussion in comparison to most other powders. The number two load for me is 3n38, but it is becoming a more distant second the more I shoot this load.

I dug up my data, and it looks like the longest I could load in my AET fitted by SV and TiN coated is 1.185" with the Zero 180gr JHP, but 1.150" felt smoother in feeding. So far this is the second AET that SV put in my gun, the first sheared off the lower lugs and SV warranteed it with a new one. The first barrel was about 20fps slower than the second, and the second shot cast much better than the first. Also, the second barrel has deeper chamber flutes than the first, and I had to change from Ramshot Competition to of all things Accurate #2 to prevent extraction problems. N320 also worked ok, but I prefer the feel of the other powders. Neither barrel liked the 200grain Montana Gold FMJ. I found that on the whole, the AET barrels seem to shoot about 30-50 fps faster than either my KKM or Schuemann regular barrels. So, if I were to guess, you will be pretty close velocity wise.

I got a hybrid 38 supercomp myself in April, and have played with a lot of the powders out there. I agree 3n38 can be a bit much, but really liked how it felt. One powder that felt similar to me in my gun with the 125s was IMR 4756. Plus it is cheaper and more available. But it is pretty bulky and fills the case almost to the brim. The powder I finally decided on was IMR 7625. I found that for me, I shot better scores, and could call the shot more consistantly. I noticed a slight downward impulse at the beginning of the recoil with 3n38, as well as more circular movement in the dot. With 7625 and 4756 the dot tracked more vertically. To me, 4756 just didn't feel right, and was a little more difficult to load than 7625, and I used less 7625 to make the same power factor. Also, with any of these three powders you will see very small standard deviations of velocity, and are also pretty clean. I don't know about you, but I have heard of a number of guns that ran pretty reasonable volumes of all of these powders with 115, 121, and 125 grain bullets with pretty reasonable wear so I stopped worrying about it, picked a load, and started shooting.

You might be having some problems with your powder bar, unless competition works consistantly with the montana golds. I remember that one of my powder measures had enough slop in it that AA#2 would not meter worth a damn, but all of the extruded powders would work fine. I tacked it down to powder working its way out around the charge bar when the bar moved to the drop position. It was hard to spot since the powder was being dropped off of the bar on the far side of the measure. But even then I only saw a 0.2-0.3 grain disparity, and #2 is a much finer powder. When I switched measures, I could never measure a difference worth mentioning between charges. And I never had any static problems with Competition here or in Montana that I can remember.

Erik, You must be cursed, or have a bad batch of powder. I got results that were as consistant as N320 with Competition, at long OAL 1.185-1.230" with 180 and 200 gr bullets both cast and jacketed. I think the most I had in velocity spread over 20 rounds was like 50 or 60 fps.

50 is alright to travel on if you do it in the daylight, but it has justly earned the name of lonliest highway in America. I used to run over to Ely from Reno on long weekends and you can pretty much set the cruise control to near sonic and go. You probably only need to worry about the comparitively major areas around Ely, Eureka, and Austin, the rest is pretty barren until you hit Fallon and then the Carson/Dayton area and then traffic and police become pretty dense. Camping in the area around Eureka and Austin is pretty good usually, but we had a very wet winter and spring, so the fire potential is pretty high, and you might be somewhat limited to areas. Ely has a number of good spots to camp too. As was said before, beware the livestock. I was on my way to Ely with a friend and was riding shotgun. As he crested a rise, we saw nothing but a wall of white sheep across the road, and struck 3 or 4 before he could stop. One option that may be longer on the miles, but you should be able to fly through on is through Vegas to Tonopah, up NV376 to Austin, and accross on 50 from there. I can usually make this leg of the drive to Austin in about 4 hours taking it pretty easy from Boulder City with about 2.5 hours more to Carson City depending on traffic. There is a litte bit of a climb, but the roads are all but abandoned with the only traffic being ranchers, or miners in the early morning and evening. Normaly to go from Boulder CIty to Carson it takes about 8 hours, via US 95.

Erik, This is the only time I have heard of Montana Golds being faster than a conventional jacked bullet of similar design. When I tried Zero and Sierra bullets they were always 2-5 pf higher than the MG. About the only thing I can think of is the PD bullets have a larger diameter an maybe larger bearing surface than the MG and are generating more friction in the bore. I know that in comparing .355 and .356 bullets in my super I lost about 3 pf with the larger diameter all other things being the same. Maybe 40aet is right, and the base is the problem.

Erik, When I was playing with competition, it stayed pretty consistant over some serious temprature extremes. I just looked at my data and it bounced aroud +/- 2 pf regardless of temprature and altitude. I would think that the PD bullets are shorter, and not generating enough pressure to achieve the same velocities. I notice the same thing when switching from one bullet to another of similar shape and type. I did note that competition was sensitive to OAL or more precisely initial case volume. At 1.185" I got 175 pf and at 1.200" I got 170 pf. If you have any more questions, drop me an e-mail or catch up with me at WNPL.

I have used the masterblaster bullets in the past, and found that with n320 and ramshot competition I could get the extreme spread over 20 rounds down to about 30-40 fps. I tried WST, and had similar problems. My notes showed that I got about 60 fps spread. But, it also showed that I consistantly got one round that increased the spread, with the SD around 19 fps. I really liked the bullets, and if my new barrel in my limited gun shot them any better, I would still be using them.

I have a pretty much new 4 port hybridcomp gun in supercomp and have just finished some load development. I tried the 115s but did not care for them, so all of my experiance is based on 124s. 7625 was okay, but I too had pressure problems, at 7.7 grains, it felt great but deformed the primers pretty bad, and blew a couple. I tried 4756 and it too felt great, but did not have any pressure problems at all, 8.8 with my lot made major. The only problem I found was that it really fills the case, and got all over the place when I loaded. Ramshot true blue felt pretty good, was very consistant velocity wise, but is pretty dirty. It is very dense and leaves lots of space in the case. I worked this load up from 160 pf to 186 pf without any pressure problems, to see what if any differance it made in feel. It was dirty throught this testing. It is my second choice. I tried ramshot silhouette too, but did not care for it. Lots of concussion and unburned powder. I too did not like n350. The best I have found for me so far is VV 3n38. It has no pressure signs in my gun, shoots very constantly, but I had to load it to 175 pf to get away from some slight unburned powder issues. Hope this helps.

Thanks for the suggestions. The FP stop is relieved for the aftec, and it seems to move freely. The hook is polished, and the rounds move freely under it, so it does seem to not be an extractor issue. I have also dropped all of the rounds I shot today into the chamber forwards and backwards, so it seems the rim is within the tolerance of the chamber. I have tried recoil spring from 8# to 11# according to the tester I have, with pretty much the same results. I have also tried leaving the lube on my ammo, with no improvement. Benny and Guild, how do I check for barrel clocking? The hood seems to have uniform wear on both sides, and after shooting, fouling seems the same on both sides.

I got my open gun from Don at Kodiak Precision about 2 months ago, and for the most part it has been flawless. It is a 5" 4 port hybrid with a 4 chamber comp, and is an absolute delight to shoot. However, I have been having an extremly annoying problem with it lately. Once or twice in every hundred rounds, one round will fail to chamber completly. A slight bump on the slide will put it into battery. I am currently running a 9# spring and it has an aftec extractor. This feeding problem has never occured with the 1000 pieces of Lapua I have, and I have run them through the gun atleast 5 times. However, on my supercomp brass, this problem occurs. It didn't happen at all on the first firing of the starline, but only started on the second firing. I though it might be an extractor problem, and have swapped the springs around, and removed them one at a time, swapping positions, to no avail. I have also polished the feed ramp, with no improvement. The load that seems most reliable so far is 3n38 with a montana gold 124 jhp at 1.235". Any suggestions? I contacted Don about this, and he too thinks it may be extractor related. I miked the rims of both brands, and the starline is approximately 0.002-3" larger, but this is consistant with both new and once fired. I also chamber check my ammo, and have been inspecting the rims prettly closely. Are there any thing I may be missing?

You should like it just fine. The only time I had problems with it were related to the fluted chamber in my AET barrel.

Erik, If you want to try some competition, I can bring a pound into Reno for you this weekend. -Austin